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Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Office of the First Lady of the United States

IncumbentMichelle Obamasince January 20, 2009

The Office of the First Lady of the United States is accountable to the First Lady of the United States
for her to carry out her duties as hostess of the White House, and is
also in charge of all social and ceremonial events of the White House.
The First Lady has her own staff that includes the White House Social
Secretary, a Chief of Staff, Press Secretary, Chief Floral Designer,
Executive Chef, etc. The Office of the First Lady is an entity of the White House Office, part of the Executive Office of the President.

History

First Lady Caroline Harrison could be widely considered to be the first First Lady to have a staff, whose niece served as social secretary. Florence Harding had a "funded staff", a social secretary and an assistant. Grace Coolidge had a social secretary, Polly Randolph.

Eleanor Roosevelt had a staff of only two, her personal secretary and aide Malvina Thompson,
and social secretary Edith Helm; at first, the three of them had a
second-floor office in the Mansion, but later initiated the use of a
first lady's office in the newly constructed East Wing. Bess Truman
had a personal secretary and used Mrs. Roosevelt's former White House
sitting room while two other secretaries, plus the White House Military
Aide, were located in the East Wing. Mamie Eisenhower had Mrs. Roosevelt's old desk placed in her bedroom. Mamie's social secretary headed a small staff in the East Wing. Jackie Kennedy had a staff of forty in the East Wing, directed by the social secretary; her unofficial office was the Treaty Room on the second floor of the Mansion. Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon both used a sitting room/dressing room adjacent to the bedroom as their offices; their staffs were in the East Wing. Betty Ford used the Treaty Room as her office and also had a desk in her sitting room.

Rosalynn Carter
broke tradition and set up an office for herself in the East Wing, and
for the first time it was formally called "Office of the First Lady."
Her principal assistant was the first to hold a separately identified
position with the title "chief of staff to the first lady." Nancy Reagan
moved her office back into the center of the second floor of the
Mansion, though her staff remained in the East Wing; she benefited from
the 1978 statute Pub.L. 95–570
which authorizes "assistance and services . . . to be provided to the
spouse of the President in connection with assistance provided by such
spouse to the President in the discharge of the President’s duties and
responsibilities."

Hillary Clinton
broke tradition even further: the President gave her an office on the
second floor of the West Wing itself; her staff of twenty (plus another
fifteen interns and volunteers) was divided between a suite in the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the traditional locus of the
East Wing.

First Lady Laura Bush
had her office in the East Wing, and delivered the President's radio
address to the nation on November 17, 2001. She undertook many foreign
trips on her own, meeting and talking with several foreign chiefs of
state.

Key staff, current (Michelle Obama)

Chief of Staff to the First Lady: Tina Tchen

Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady: Melissa Winter

Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady: David Medina

Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady: Kristina Schake

Deputy Communications Director for the First Lady: Semonti Stephens

Press Secretary for the First Lady: Hannah August

Director of Policy and Projects: Jocelyn Frye

Deputy Director of Policy and Projects: Trooper Sanders

Director of Scheduling and Advance: Franny Starkey Sanguin

Deputy Director of Scheduling & Events: Jennifer Goodman

Special Assistant for Scheduling &Traveling Aide: Kristen Jarvis

Associate Counsel to the President and Counsel to the First Lady:

Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary: Jeremy Bernard